every moment that passes has a message but we tend to distort the guide of the moment to the tune of our thinking that it becomes irrelevant..we misinterpret individuality then but we seldom realize..but the message remains the same..we need to go beyond..alas! we seldom go..

The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Friday, 20 December 2013

LOKPAL: THE ‘COMPROMISED’ BILL IS LOGICAL ENOUGH TO BEGIN WITH

We are always free to demand for
more and we will..

There have been debates and there will be debates on
effectiveness of the just passed Lokpal Bill, to create an anti-corruption
ombudsman. Some would dismiss. Some would extol. Some would remain skeptical
and would prefer to wait and watch.

What was being demanded by the civil society was not a
practical one. What was being given by the government was not an acceptable
one.

But, the Bill passed ‘finally’ by the Indian Parliament on
December 18, can be seen, more or less as an acceptable one to begin with.
Broadly, it paves the way for an ombudsman that if implemented in time, with
proper infrastructure and with supportive legislations like the Citizen Charter
Bill, the Judicial Accountability Bill and the Whistleblowers Protection Bill
can prove really effective in spite of the reservations over many of its
provisions.

The need is to develop a good ecosystem with all these
constituents. Yes, we all know it’s easier said than done. And given the
prevalence of political opportunism in India, we know it’s not going to be
easy.

But, at least, we have a point to begin now.

The fight has been a long and circuitous one and this
outcome should not be seen as a washout and should not be rejected outright.
The Bill was to be passed and was to be enacted if we had to move ahead, from
planning to implementations stage.

And if it could happen so, finally, after 45 or 50 years, any
which way we want to look at it, it owes much to the hugely successful
anti-corruption movement of 2011, especially its April and August legs that
bolsters the feeling the Indians are learning to express their displeasure more
and more expressively, more and more aggressively.

And that is a point to reflect on, to hope positively that
an anti-corruption ecology around the Lokpal, with some other corresponding
laws, can be created.

The basic requirement is the pressure from the public and
its manifestation. It is good that public is increasingly expressing itself,
more and more, and spontaneously, with or without a leader, as happened during
the 2011 anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare, as happened during the
huge leaderless public protests in the aftermath of December 16 Delhi gangrape
and recently in the unprecedented electoral mandate to the Aam Aadmi Party in
Delhi assembly polls, a party that fought on the issue of corruption and successfully
exploited the public sentiments mobilized after the 2011 anti-corruption
movement.

So, there is an ecology of pressure being built up. And on
its target are the present ways of administration and governance by the
mainstream political parties of India.

On the face of it, there are many good points in the
Lokpal Bill/Act cleared. It has power to prosecute. It can check every
government official including the prime minister. The process of Lokpal’s
appointment and dismissal is fairly logical.

These basic rules to establish and govern the institution
of the anti-corruption ombudsman are broad enough to give it a good enough
space to breath, to make others suffocate.

See the good precedent set by the Election Commission of
India and the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, both chosen by the Indian
government. The regularly increasing voter turn-out election after election and
clean and violence-free elections or consistent reports putting the government
on back-foot on corruption and scams like 2G, different land and defense deals
have become benchmarks of the Indian Democracy.

So, there is no reason to dismiss the Lokpal even before
it starts working, when it has good enough autonomy to begin with.

It is true it is a ‘compromised’ bill with politicians putting
their ‘sincere’ efforts to dilute it as much as they could in the prevailing sociopolitical
scenario. So, there is some tough fighting ahead to iron out the difficulties
once the institution gets operational. Even in that case, it would be much
easier to bring amendments to introduce the required element of reform than not
having the Lokpal at all.

One of the most talked about omissions is excluding the
lower bureaucracy from Lokpal’s purview areas. That is a concern area but it is
not something that can not be added later provided there is intent or there is
pressure to do so.

If public pressure can panic the politicians to the extent
that they can pass the Bill in just 10 days after Congress routing in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and AAP’s grand entry
in Delhi in the
election results announced on December 8, it can certainly push them to do so.

While a government of an outfit like AAP should happily,
on its own, weed out the weaker elements, even a government of any of the
mainstream political party would not be able to skirt the demand then, in an
environment of a more aware electorate and more alert activists amid an
increasing presence of alternative political parties and politicians like AAP
or Arvind Kejriwal. AAP’s success in Delhi is
bound to give India
more of honest, young and unorthodox politicians in the days to come.

Alternatively, there can be this relevant afterthought. Corruption
has made every part of the Indian administrative and governance machinery largely
sluggish and docile.

As it affects every sphere of Indian life, its social,
political and commercial activities, it has exported corruption to almost every
section of Indian society, free of caste, class, religion and regional divides.
It has made corruption interdependent and interrelated.

So, in a way, if we say, if we can check the corruption in
the government at top level, setting some tough precedents, it can set in
motion a ripple effect, that, though will take time, will trickle down to other
participants, the NGO people, the lower-ranked bureaucracy and the corporate
people, who are not covered under the Lokpal Act.

If there can be a check at the top level corruption, and
if there can be some tough and landmark punitive action taken, some examples on
this line, it will send down a clear message.

Also, when the government corruption at top level would
see its avenues to earn easy money being squeezed out, it would certainly feel
unhappy to see others still milking the cow.

Nothing like rocket science in thinking so – if they
cannot eat, they will not let others eat – if they cannot earn easy money –
they will not let others do so – the forced honesty!

So, in checking them, they would be more and more
impartial, would be increasingly objective and detached.

Just an afterthought!

But I am not daydreaming folks! The Lokpal is here and
that is a good sign; that is a logical reason to prepare for the next stage of
the fight – to let it evolve into an effective institution.

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About Me

thinking, reading, n writing to fill my spaces-all this with visiting unseen places-a lot of doing n just my soul to company me-isn't it life at its best, if i can be at it-realizing every moment of life, i just need to have this in my life..

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